Parkland building demolished six years after mass shooting

This story was updated on Friday June 14, 2024 at 3:37 p.m.

In 2018, the 1200 building of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School became the site of one of the worst school shootings in the country.

Six years later, it was finally demolished. The demolition of building 1200 will take several weeks. This is a mechanical demolition, meaning it will be taken apart piece by piece, instead of imploded.

Demolition began on Friday June 14. Seventeen people, including 14 students, were killed on February 14, 2018, when a lone gunman, a former student, opened fire inside the building.

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The demolition sparks mixed feelings within the community, who want to remember the victims while putting painful memories aside.

Dylan Persaud, a 2021 Marjory Stoneman Douglas graduate, was present at the school during the shooting and was also present during Friday's demolition.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for a while,” he told WLRN. “This is the period that ends at the end of this story.”

Since the 2018 shooting, the building has been visited by jurors, politicians and others to better understand what happened that day.

“Now is the time to talk about it. That chapter is closed. Its usefulness as an educational tool — it has had its day,” said Ryan Petty, a school safety advocate who lost his daughter Alaina in tragedy.

Just days before the demolition, he was attending a Florida school safety summit in Orlando. Petty was there with Tony Montalto who lost his daughter, Gina, in the mass shooting.

Montalto told WLRN he understands the pain associated with the building, but also sees its value in remembering the lives lost.

“My son is worried when the building collapses, people in the community might forget what happened there,” he said. “We must always remember who was taken because that is the real tragedy of the event.”

“It’s not that the event happened, it’s that we lost so many wonderful people.”

Like Montalto, Debbie Hixon hopes Broward County will erect a memorial for the missing.

“Let’s demolish the building and put something in that space that can be functional,” Hixon told WLRN. “It can remind us of the people who were taken away – but not how they died, but how they lived.”

Hixon's husband, Chris, was the school's athletic director and died in the shooting while trying to stop the shooter. As of 2020, she has been a member of the Broward County School Board.

Hixon, Petty and Montalto told WLRN that while this closes another chapter in the Parkland tragedy, the pain felt is never truly over.

“We will never have closure,” Montalto said. “Every day I wake up and think about Gina: she is often my last thought before I go to bed at night.”

Bryan Lequerique was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas when the shooting occurred. He came to watch the demolition and became emotional while speaking to journalists.

“It definitely takes you back to that time,” he said, describing what happens to him every time he passes the building.

“This is very important for the community: it is time to put an end to this very painful chapter in everyone’s lives.”

Although the building is in the process of being demolished, through advocacy and the community, many community members have strived to cherish the legacy of their loved ones.

“As this building collapses and we look for ways to memorialize those who have passed away, I think we should do so not only in what we put in this space, but also in how we live our lives,” Hixon said.

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